Security officials arrest Burundian TV journalist

Nairobi, June 17,
2013--Authorities in Burundi have been holding a journalist since
Thursday on broad allegations of breaching national security, according to news
reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the detention
of Lucien Rukevya and calls on authorities to disclose its reasons for holding
him.

Burundi's intelligence service arrested Rukevya, a journalist and producer for the state-run
National Radio and Television of Burundi, according to news reports and local
journalists. Telesphore Bigirimana, government spokesman for national security,
said Rukevya had been in possession of "incriminating documents"but did
not offer further details, news
reports said. No charges have been filed against him.

Alexandre Niyungeko,
president of the Burundian Union of Journalists, said Rukevya had been accused
of involvement with M23 rebels, news reports
said. M23 rebels are former Congolese soldiers who mutinied against the government of the
Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 for allegedly reneging on a 2009 peace
agreement. Reports said Rukevya had been arrested with a former minister and
two Congolese men who were said to be members of the M23 rebel group.

The extent and
nature of the M23's presence in Burundi are unclear.

Local journalists told CPJ the reporter was being held at the central intelligence office in the
capital, Bujumbura. Security personnel searched Rukevya's home and office today.
They have allowed him limitedaccess to a lawyer, the sources said.

"We are concerned
that Burundian authorities may be using overly broad national security laws to
arbitrarily detain a journalist who is seeking to cover a sensitive news
story," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Authorities should
disclose evidence against Lucien Rukevya or release him immediately."

The arrest follows the passage of a
new media
law in Burundi that forces journalists
to reveal their sources and criminalizes coverage of any information the state
deems detrimental based on broad concepts such as national security and public
safety.

A week after President
Pierre Nkurunziza promulgated the law, authorities summoned
at least two other journalists for questioning, according to news
reports. On June 11, police in
Bujumbura interrogated Janvier Harerimana, reporter for the independent Radio
Isanganiro, and demanded he give up his sources to a story concerning an
alleged murder by the Imbonerakure,
a ruling-party youth league, local journalists told CPJ. Two days later, a
state prosecutor summoned Evariste Nzikobanyankain, a reporter for the same
station, in connection with a story that could be "detrimental to public
safety," Niyungeko said. Nzikobanyanka had aired a story concerning reports of
mismanagement by the National Commission for Land and Property (CNTB),
local journalists told CPJ.